List Price: $27.25
Sale Price: $26.77
Today's Bonus: 2% Off
I'm new to the world of cigars and bought this as a gift for a friend. As part of that gift I wanted to have him open it stocked and ready to use. Well, that ain't happening. The seal of a humidor is the be all, end all test of quality. This box is not quality.
On first checking the product after arrival I noticed the lid was very easy to close. There was no resistance at all. That should've tipped me off to return it, but again, I'm not familiar with this stuff and figured the seasoning process would fix that issue.I had ordered a Boveda seasoning pack along with the box since that seemed to be the easy, no hassle way to get things done. I followed the instructions on the pack, opened it and left it inside the humidor for 2 weeks. Once the time was up I lifted the lid to no resistance and a dried up Boveda. All the videos and tutorials I checked said this was set and forget. I suppose the gap was too large and led to all the moisture being sapped out of the seasoning pack.
So I decided to try the old school method of distilled water and a sponge. This too has ended in failure. During the first phase everything seems to be going well. The wood around the lid swells up and will get a very tight seal. After only a few hours, even with the sponge set inside (on a plastic bag after wiping down the interior) to allow additional moisture to be soaked up, the wood dries back out and loses whatever light seal was there. I can see large gaps where the insert corners meet. The inserts themselves are also somewhat loose. They aren't going to fall out, but you can push on the center and it will bow out. This adds to the poor seal.
I've tried the distilled water/sponge method twice. At this point it seems to be a lost cause. I was only able to get around to doing this recently and the return window has long since expired. I may try some hack-ery to get humidor up to par, but as it stands, it's been a very disappointing purchase. I also can't speak to the "travel" part of the humidor. If you're going to travel with something spend the extra money and purchase one of the plastic cigar caddies. They offer way more protection and are easier to work with.
I will mention one positive about "Quality" Importers travel humidor product: the exterior looks nice. If you don't need to store cigars but want a nice looking storage box for keys or jewelry it's not too bad. Those expecting a kit that will protect your rH sensitive smokes need to look elsewhere. As the adage goes, you get what you pay for.
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I've bought many items from Amazon, but this the first time I felt compelled to write a review for a purchased item because of lack of information on this humidor. I've already have a desktop humidor box and a traveling humidor can. Unfortunately, the humidor can won't fit the 8" cigar I usually smoke. So I was hoping this would fit the need. I was considering the capri-glas top humidor, but the height of that box was 1" higher than my liking. Plus, I am going to take it with me on traveling, so the box will most likely be in places where it might be under the sun (i.e. car). Then I saw the Rivera model and thought it be the better option for me. Unfortunately, there was no description of its dimension! Uh, that's kind of important, isn't it? Especially, if it's a travel humidor. So, I ponder it for a couple of days. Looking at its photo over and over again. I finally decided to go ahead with the purchase base on the photo comparison between Rivera and Capri-glass top. I figure if nothing else, the Rivera model should be shorter in term of height.The item arrived two days before its scheduled delivery. So that was good. I opened up the box and everything was included per item description; the humidifier, the hygrometer, the engraving plate. It didn't came with instruction for how to calibrate the hygrometer or how to season the humidor. That might be a bit of an annoyance for a first timer. But it's nothing a little search on the internet wouldn't solve. Anyway, the first thing I did was take out my ruler and measure the interior dimension. To my chagrin, the interior measured 9.5"x7.75"x1.5" (exterior is 10.5"x8.75"x2.75"). It will fit my 8" Cubano only in horizontal position, leaving about 1.5" of empty space...
I then start the task of calibrating the hygrometer and seasoning the box. Put the meter in a zip lock bag along with a teaspoon of damp salt in it. Woke up the next morning, check on the reading, the meter reads 60. Um, okay, maybe it just need a little more time. So I left it in the bag and went to work. When I came back from work, the reading still indicate 60. I thought to myself, "WTF! This thing is off by +15!?" I decided to take the meter out of the bag anyway and went ahead with the seasoning process. I figured if it really is off by how much I think it is, then the reading should be 55 by the time seasoning is done. Sure enough, 8 hours later, the meter reads 55.
Basically, it's an exquisite humidor (for its price) with a really crappy hydrometer! As of now, I am still testing the meter's reading to see if the +15 margin is really accurate. If it is, then I'll probably keep this crappy hygrometer and just live with the error. Otherwise, I might have to invest in another hygrometer... Lastly, I think all humidor should at the very least, list its interior dimension so people can decide if it's the right size for their purpose or not.
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The humidor is real pretty, packed well. There are no instructions for a first timer on how to season. The humidifier has no instructions either, and the peel off sticky pad had no stick, I had to use rubber cement to attach it to the box, which I hope doesn't affect the smell and taste of the el-cheapo brands I can afford. But, it is a pretty box. As for instructions thank Al Gore for the internet! ehow.com has instructions for both seasoning and using the humidifier.Update day 3: The rubber cement is not going to hold the humidifier's metal mount in place.
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